The Second Confessions
Rousseau began his Confessions in 1765 and they were published after his death, in two parts: twelve books, six to a part. Taking Augustine's title was a deliberate provocation, because the project is inverted at almost every point.
The clearest difference is the addressee. Augustine writes to God, who already knows. Rousseau writes to a tribunal of readers, and he opens by summoning them:
"Let the last trumpet sound when it will, I shall come forward with this book in my hand, and say aloud: Thus have I acted."
Where Augustine confesses to be forgiven, Rousseau confesses to be understood, and the difference reorganises the entire form. An addressee who already knows the facts cannot be persuaded; an addressee who must be convinced can be. Rousseau's book therefore has a case to make in a way Augustine's does not.
The second difference is what a confession is for:
| Augustine | Rousseau | |
|---|---|---|
| Addressee | God | Readers, as a tribunal |
| Purpose | To be forgiven | To be understood |
| The self is | Fallen, needing grace | Naturally good, corrupted by society |
| Shameful episode | Evidence of a divided will | Evidence of sincerity |
| Ends in | Conversion | Vindication |
Rousseau's claim to absolute sincerity, "I have displayed myself as I was", is the book's engine and its problem. He records humiliating material (the stolen ribbon he blamed on a servant girl, his abandonment of five children to a foundling hospital) and the recording is offered as proof of honesty. But a shameful admission made in order to demonstrate honesty is doing rhetorical work, and readers have argued ever since about whether the sincerity is a fact about the man or an effect of the writing.
The third difference is feeling. Rousseau's account of childhood, of landscape, of being wronged, treats emotional experience as evidence rather than decoration, and does so in a prose designed to transmit it. That decision runs directly into Romanticism, and the modern assumption that an inner life is worth describing at length because it is yours begins here rather than with Augustine, for whom it was worth describing because it was God's.
Common pitfall: taking Rousseau's self-accusations as straightforward evidence of honesty. They are the strongest move available to someone arguing for their own sincerity, which is precisely why they cannot settle the question by themselves.